Avoiding a late game swarm

[0bsidi0n]

I couldn't see if this had been addressed, so here goes: Has anyone tried boosting the production cost of modern units to avoid modern war involving hundreds of ma's, mi's, etc? I'm theorizing that by boosting the costs the ai (and hopefully the humans ) will produce less. I guess what I'm also asking is whether this is a good idea or not. I personally hate mobilizing hundreds of units through airports/transports late in the game, whereas earlier (in the game) a small handful of units can easily decide the outcome of major wars. Someone tell me if I'm totally off the ball...

[Mizaq]

i'm not sure it would decrease the amount produced, but it probably make for longer wars since you'd have to let your units rest.

[Jaybe]

The concept works at least somewhat. I have played only a couple of games into the modern era since I increased costs. It is a rare metro (in my experience) that has 80 shields.

Tank, Panzer, Mech Inf.: 120 shields
Modern Armor: 160 shields

[Egbert]

In my current game (using the Double your Pleasure mod) I boosted the gold per turn support costs of units under all forms of government. The number of AI units seems rather less than usual. Also I have less units due to the exorbitant support costs. As I am only halfway through my first such game it is too soon to be sure but I "seem" to getting the desired reduction in unit numbers. So far, it actually seems fair to me and the AI. Umh, it may be a good idea to adjust downwards the bonus unit support for the AI at the higher difficulty levels to rebalance the relative advantage.(Maybe adjust free AI units upwards for Chieftain and Warlord). Also consider adjusting free unit support numbers for government types.

I have tried raising shield costs in previous games but that seems to cripple the AI improvement building. It hurts my improvement building but not nearly as much as the AI still loses units as rapidly as ever whereas I get far more careful about possible unit losses. This seemed to give me a significant advantage. A huge advantage to me was that the AI throws its costly units against my city walls as avidly as ever but has does not have the seemingly endless supply of units as in normal Civ3 so my (more careful than usual) counterattack meets relatively much less opposition.

Umh, I suspect that raisint the gold per turn support costs leads to the AI being less aggressive presumably because it has less units. That is only a suspicion so far.

[Sava]

The AI usually doesn't survive long enough to produce these units in my games.

[0bsidi0n]

Thanks Peterofharris, that's some sweet info. I think I'm actually going to abandon this whole shield increase shindig. I figured I'd probably get tired and just start conscripting people anyway.

[Egbert]

Originally posted by 0bsidi0n
Thanks Peterofharris, that's some sweet info. I think I'm actually going to abandon this whole shield increase shindig. I figured I'd probably get tired and just start conscripting people anyway.

If you try the increased support cost then can you let us know how it works out please? Do you notice any particular advantages or disadvantages to the AI or to yourself? I am trying very hard to find ways of reducing the number of units without unbalancing the game. (I get bored moving all those units around).

Good point about the conscription. I never thought of that having never used conscription. A conscript would be even less attractive, blow a population point to get a very high upkeep unit with minimal hitpoints. I may have to think about preventing conscription.